Four Shiny Things in Tampa (And Some Dull Ones)

Tampa has been polished for the Republican National Convention, though not enough to hide its tattered parts or sprawl or the way it has been chopped up by barricades that seem, at times, haphazardly placed. And there are bright items to be found at the R.N.C., along with dull objects (some of which, like the peanuts two conference attendees threw at a black CNN camerawoman on the convention floor Tuesday night, can still cause sharp pain). Here are four shiny things, along with some questions each of them raises.

1. The mini-disco-ball keychains at GOProud’s Homocon. There were bowls full of them, party favors at a bar called the Honey Pot in Ybor City, at a celebration that lasted until after 2 A.M. and included both convention delegates and journalists, club dancing and Grover Norquist.

Questions raised: Is GOProud, which works on gay rights from a conservative direction, making progress within the party? Is this a sign that the G.O.P.’s libertarian faction is still strong—or that, after hours of speeches, some people just want to dance?

2. Nikki Haley’s collar. The governor of South Carolina came out wearing a glossy white jacket over a dress topped with rows of what looked like crystals embedded in gauze. It looked a bit like what the Andrea Thomas character wore in the nineteen-seventies television series “The Secrets of Isis.” (That is a compliment.) She broke up a series of red dresses, but not with the habit, inculcated in women in elected office, of smiling almost no matter what they are saying. In Haley’s case, it was a speech largely about the degraded “we built that” theme.

Questions raised: The construction of political costumes; why certain woman in office were slated to speak with the wives of politicians, as if they were all part of some girl group; and what, exactly, the message of the G.O.P.’s “women’s night” was meant to be. (Jane Mayer has some thoughts on that.)

3. The mirror-plated boxes at the Miriam Adelson Woman Up! Pavilion. Many were filled with pink carnations and rosebuds, and set down, with many other shiny things, next to white-leather couches, giving the place the look of a bridal boutique in Bensonhurst. On the practical side, there was a salon, and coffee, and panels about women in business and one called “Hey America! Don’t take this road! The Europeanization of the United States.”

Questions raised: Miriam Adelson did not directly pay for the set-up—it was put together by the Y.G. Network and “honored” her—but her husband, Sheldon Adelson, has committed tens of millions to the Republican side in this election, some in her name. How does one begin to track what that money buys?

4. “A shining city on a hill,” a.k.a. the ghost of Ronald Reagan. John McCain repeated the shining city line, though in a rote tone, in an indifferent speech. Many speeches have had Reagan references—Rand Paul talked as much about him as about his own father; many have still been dull.

Questions raised: Reagan talked about his vision of a shining city in a speech at the 1976 convention—when he didn’t even get the nomination. No one so far this week has come close to him rhetorically. Can Romney, Thursday night? Can he even begin to glow?